“I… don’t know.” Carlton glanced at Gene, then went on strongly. “That is… no. I’m positive they are not. I’m ready to swear I don’t recognize either one of them.
“But for God’s sake, Shayne,” he went on in a sudden burst of fear, “I’m sure they intend to kill both of us if we refuse to deal with them.”
Shayne said sardonically, “That should please the listening boss. But why the hell,” he asked Gene, “are you fooling with Carlton at all? The safest way to make sure he doesn’t doublecross you is to kill him.”
“Sure. That’s what I told the boss. But I don’t know. He says there’s been too much killing already.” Gene’s hoarse voice sounded aggrieved. “I say we’re fools if we don’t feed both of you lead right here.”
“Not me,” Shayne told him. “My information will go straight to Gentry if I die. With what I’ve got the police will have all of you and a lot of others rounded up in an hour. But with Carlton it’s different,” Shayne pointed out wolfishly. “The only way he is a danger is as long as he lives.”
“Please, Shayne!” Carlton cried in alarm. “Are you turning on me, too?”
Shayne cocked a shaggy red eyebrow at Carlton and said, “I’m just trying to get things squared around. You’re done for,” he ended deliberately. “You haven’t got anything to bargain with. I have.”
Gene said, “Nuts, Shamus. You tried to pull that one this afternoon.”
“And you’re goddamned lucky Pat didn’t find my gun and I came out of it alive,” Shayne told him, emphasizing each word. “You’ve been lucky twice today. Your only chance to beat this rap is for me to keep on living. And you know it. You know goddamn well you can’t make a deal with Gentry.”
“Maybe it is that way,” Gene conceded in a surly tone. “Let the boss hear just what you’ve got to say and he’ll maybe make an offer.”
Shayne said, “No. I want you rats to keep on squirming. I want you to keep on thinking, ‘Hell, maybe Shayne don’t know anything. Maybe he’s just putting up a bluff, but your white livers won’t let you take a chance on it. You’re on the run and you know it.”
Gene’s black eyes glittered in his dark, pasty face. He drew in an excited breath and said, “That’s just what I’ve told the boss. I don’t believe Wilson had time to tell you a damned thing over the phone. If you know what you claim to know, why don’t you do something? That’s what I keep telling the boss,” he ended in a choked voice.
Shayne asked, “How do you know what Wilson had time to tell me?”
“It’s none of your goddamned business.”
“All right. Maybe I’ve got my own reasons for not doing anything.”
Carlton pulled himself up straight from a doubled position in his chair. “You mean you’ll listen to reason?” he asked eagerly. “That’s what you mean, isn’t it, Shayne? That’s the only thing we can do. If you’re so stubborn about it they’ll kill us both.”
“They’re not going to kill me,” Shayne said bluntly. “Anybody but a crazy punk would know they can’t afford to take a chance.” His eyes scorned Gene.
“The boss ain’t going to make a deal till he knows what you’ve got to trade,” Gene sneered, his eyes wavering.
“And I’m not going to tell him what I’ve got to trade,” Shayne said easily. “Not yet. That’s what the boss might call an impasse, isn’t it?” He addressed his words directly to the rectangular opening in the wall.
“He ain’t going to answer you,” Gene said impatiently.
“I didn’t think he would… which means he’s afraid I might recognize his voice.”
Gene frowned and his eyes were baffled now. “Damned if I see any way except to bump you both.”
“Please, Shayne,” Carlton cried hoarsely, cowering in his straight-backed chair again. “You have no right to jeopardize my position, also. I’m merely an innocent bystander, and you talked me into this dangerous situation. If I hadn’t listened to your arguments last night I wouldn’t be in this predicament.”
“But you’d have a dirty smear on your conscience.”
“I don’t care about my conscience. All I ask is to be allowed to go in peace.” Sweat stood on Carlton’s face between the strips of adhesive.
Shayne said, “I’m willing to listen to a proposition.” He turned to Gene with lifted brows.
“I’ve told you the only way the boss will dicker.”
Shayne sighed. “There’s our impasse again.” He lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply, with every indication of great enjoyment of the situation.
“We’ll have to see can we persuade you,” Gene said.
“I don’t persuade easily.”
“Then it’ll be just that much tougher on you.”
Shayne was keenly aware of his sore, broken ribs, but he argued placidly, “If the boss is smart he knows that torture never accomplished anything. Sure, you can maybe make me talk, but you’ll never know how much of it is the truth.”
Carlton rose from his chair and cried wildly, “How can you be so stubborn, Shayne? Don’t you realize we’ll both die if you don’t tell them what they want to know?”
“I don’t think so. They don’t dare kill me and they know it.” Shayne threw his lighted cigarette on the floor. He lifted his body with both hands gripping the back of the heavy wooden chair. “Know what I’m going to do?” He addressed Gene in a calm, conversational tone.
Gene took a backward step. “You better watch your step, Shamus.”
“You’re the one who’d better be watching your step,” Shayne grated. His anger anaesthetized the pain in his ribs as he lifted the chair. “I’m going to smash your head with this, then I’m going to unlock that door and walk out.” He moved forward, stalking the small dark man.
“No! Don’t do it,” Carlton screamed hysterically. “For God’s sake don’t! They’re waiting outside with guns.”
“You keep out of this,” Shayne growled, not looking at him.
Gene cowered, unarmed, against the door. Shayne set himself and swung the chair over his head.
There was another squawk of protest from Carlton, who lunged forward and threw his weight desperately against Shayne’s legs.
Shayne and the chair and Carlton went to the floor together. Cursing, Shayne extricated himself, got to his feet in time to see Gene dash through the door and slam it shut in his face.
He dived for the knob, but the door was locked again from the outside. He turned and grabbed the chair, raging at Carlton, “They’ll get away now, goddamn it. If you’d left me alone…”
“If I had let you go on with it we’d both have been shot,” Carlton said in a shaky tremolo.
Shayne’s hard gray eyes rested on him for a moment. He said, “I think they would have, at that.” Then he snorted in disgust and swung the chair over his head to bring it down savagely against the door.
A panel splintered under the impact and the sound of a racing motor came clearly as Shayne swung the chair again. This time the whole upper portion of the door gave way. He reached out and turned the key in the lock, opened the door and rushed out in time to see a red tail light fade away.
Carlton peered out fearfully, then came gingerly to join him. Shayne muttered angrily. “They’ve taken my car… and I don’t know where the hell we are.” He turned about, trying to get his bearings in the moonlight.
Carlton caught his arm and exclaimed, “They left my car.”
Shayne muttered, “If they left the keys.” He sprinted across the walk and plowed through the sand to Carlton’s green Buick coupe.
Carlton raced up beside him panting for breath. He pushed in beside Shayne and felt for the keys. “They’re here,” he said and gasped with relief.
“Get under the wheel,” Shayne ordered, “and let’s get to a telephone.” He got in on the right-hand side and leaned out to get his bearings as Carlton pulled away fast. By the time they had gone two blocks he had the location of the cabin fixed in his mind. It was in the midst of the undeveloped hammocked section in the south part of the city, lying about half-way between the bayfront and Coral Gables.
“Turn left at the first corner,” Shayne directed. “That’ll take us out to a little business section.”
Carlton drove ably and fast. He regained his composure and was no longer the shrinking thing he had been when he thought death was inevitable.
When he pulled up in front of a drugstore Shayne had the door open. He leaped out as the coupe slid to a stop. He ran in past a couple of startled loungers at the counter and on to the phone booth in the rear.
Dialing Will Gentry’s number and waiting impatiently for an answer, he tugged at his earlobe. When Gentry
